View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The OregonianPortland police patrol a Last Thursday event along Northeast Alberta Street. Starting today, police will have to give out business cards when interacting with citizens on certain situations.Portland police better have their pockets full of business cards because a new policy requiring officers to issue them at most traffic and pedestrian stops, and when responding to emergency calls takes effect today.

At the direction of the City Council, Police Chief Rosie Sizer and her staff over the last two weeks went through nine drafts before the chief signed the new two-page directive on identification.

"I think we ended up with a good product that meets the direction we were receiving from council," Sizer said Friday.

The policy says police will demonstrate professionalism and respect by
offering their business cards in an effort to promote "excellent
community relations."

Until now, police only had to hand over a
business card when someone asked for it. Now, all bureau members are
instructed to identify themselves by name.

Further, the primary officer
involved in a vehicle or pedestrian stop is now required to offer a
business card to the person detained. The primary officer responding to
an emergency call for service will also offer a card to the
complainant.

"When a business card would improve customer service or
customer relations due to the nature, duration or intensity of the
contact or stop (i.e., when making an arrest, conducting a search or
impounding a vehicle), the member will offer a business card," the
directive says.

The new policy falls short of requiring business cards
be passed out during all police contacts with the public.

Officers
might reject a request for a card, for example, if they think it might
"impair safety or compromise an investigation" or the request is made
in an "attempt to harass, delay or manipulate" a police contact or
investigation, the policy says.

A supervisor also may direct officers
not to provide their business cards if they decide the actions "would
impair the performance of police duties." Sizer said these exceptions
resulted from officers' concerns about certain situations where, for
example, a witness to an incident might run up to an officer demanding
a card while the officer was still trying to control a situation or was
in the middle of an investigation.

"What we were trying to create for
officers was enough clarity about the circumstances where they would
offer a business card," Sizer said.

The new directive was distributed
to officers after it was presented to the city commissioners' chiefs of
staff late last week. The council's request to change Police Bureau
practice arose during a council discussion early this month on the
bureau's plan to address racial profiling.

At first, Sizer resisted the
change, preferring that any requirement for handing out cards be
restricted to traffic stops. But the council, led by commissioner Randy
Leonard, pushed for more and immediate changes.

Sgt. Scott Westerman,
president of the Portland Police Association that represents
rank-and-file officers, sergeants, detectives and criminalists, said
the union backs the policy.

"I still don't necessarily see how business
cards are going to fix racial profiling" he said, "but we believe we
are in a service industry so we have no problems handing them out when
it's appropriate to do so."